“Tenants are already telling their councillors how this will affect them. Families who need a room for a carer to stay, or those with a child with a disability who needs extra space have told us how unfair this tax is.

“The council does have a small pot of money that we can use for discretionary housing payments, but that is only enough to help a small fraction of the people who will lose money.

“I would like people to tell their councillors their stories so that we can target the available help as well as we can, and so we can give the strongest possible messages to Government about the disastrous impact of these plans.”

The changes affect tenants who have social landlords, such as Pennine Housing and other housing associations.

The change does not apply to householders with pensioners who are currently claiming housing benefit – only families of working age.

It will affect families with disabled children, foster carers and separated parents who share custody of children.

However, the Labour Party says that when housing benefit is included within the Universal Credit from October, pensioners who claim in the future will be affected.

The bedroom tax is meant to encourage people to downsize, but there is a shortage of smaller properties available in Calderdale.